Bill Bergman is a thinker, dreamer, collector, tinkerer and inventor. Fascinated with machines and moving parts, he reclaims obsolete objects and combines them with new sculptural parts that ultimately tell a story or hold some revelation that parallels human experience. Turning screws, slamming clutches, rotating cams and floating wings are metaphors for personal memories, invented and recovered. Moments of enlightenment, awe, terror and sheer wonder become unforgettable as they trigger his sculptural ideas.

Exhibitions include Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood, Stockbridge, Mass.; Rice Gallery, McDaniel College, Westminster, M.D.; Albany International Airport Gallery; Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Mass.; and several Mohawk-Hudson Regionals where he has received numerous awards including a purchase prize from the Albany Institute of History and Art. Bill enjoys visiting schools in the Capital District and talking to young people. He has been a guest artist at the Melville Academy, Ravena Central Middle School and the Schenectady School District. For several years, Bill served as adjunct faculty and sculpture technician at Saint Rose. His current post is digital fabrication manager at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The artist resides in Albany.

Colin Boyd ‘02MFA Sculpture, 2008University at Albany, State University of New York

American Incognitum, 2008

Colin Boyd is an eclectic collector and treasure hunter. He salvages abandoned homes, overgrown lots, dumpsters and museum storerooms for peculiar, cast off objects that hold narrative possibilities. These “objects of opportunity” provide the vocabulary for his working process and often times propel his obsessive research. The sculpture begins with his infatuation with a sparse element. This becomes the reference for further development to create unique narratives with embellished significance. These narratives are established through text, drawings, photographs and the arrangement of objects in tableau presentations.

A recent MFA graduate, Colin has exhibited in the Capital Region including the Visual Arts Council and Mary Elizabeth storefronts in Troy; 271 Lark Street Gallery, Albany; and Dodge Pratt Northam Arts Center, Oneida. He serves as adjunct faculty teaching intermediate sculpture and three-dimensional design at The University at Albany and Saint Rose. The artist resides in Troy.

Brian Cirmo ‘99MFA Painting, 2002University at Albany, State University of New York

Brian Cirmo makes American art informed by the American landscape and spirit, drawing from American painters, writers and musicians, past and present. The artist often employs an icon of himself as a rambling character to tell stories. In the great tradition of vagabonds, tramps, and road trips, his character chronicles and comments on histories and places American. Inspired by Jack Kerouac and Woody Guthrie, Brian’s “…modern day Hobo is truly free and freely mad. His travels find him contemplating nature, art, life, death, politics and God.”

Exhibitions include the Saratoga County Arts Council, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Contemporary Arts Center, Albany International Airport Gallery, University Art Museum at SUNY Albany, and the Mohawk Hudson Regionals. His work is held in the artists slide registries at the Drawing Center, Artists Space and Nurture Art Gallery in New York City. Brian is currently adjunct professor of art at Saint Rose and the University at Albany teaching two-dimensional concepts, drawing, color theory and painting. He also taught art at Columbia Greene Community College in Hudson. The artist resides in Albany.

Kris Corso Tolmie ‘88MFA Printmaking, 2006University at New Paltz, State University of New York

Now and Then, 2009Satellite Series I, 2009Satellite Series II, 2009

Kris Corso Tolmie records the intangible qualities of observation and experience along with natural schemata. She views the world as a palette full of visual stimuli that compose an inter-related network of opposites, changing patterns, textures and colors. The copper plate of the intaglio process is a symbol for the durability of existence while the medium of paper that the plate is pressed against is transient. The monoprints juxtapose traditional etching techniques with contemporary screen-printing. Collectively, the prints are a frame of reference for personal history and the nature of experience.

Recent solo exhibitions in the Capital Region were held at the Yates Gallery, J. Spencer & Patricia Standish Library, Siena College and the Lake George Arts Project. Group exhibitions include Clemson National Print and Drawing Exhibition in South Carolina; Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea; Arkell Museum, Canajoharie and Kirkland Art Center, Clinton, N.Y.; and the 20th Parkside Juried national Small Print Exhibition, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha, Wis. Kris serves as assistant professor of art in printmaking at Saint Rose. She resides in Albany.

Richard Garrison casts a critical eye on consumerism and the American “Big Box” landscape. His work involves collective, systematic processes. His subject matter is derived from familiar suburban habitats such as supermarkets, housing developments, parking lots and fast food restaurants. Sites are interpreted with various surveying methods including architectural measuring, photography, process drawing and (GPS) mapping. Materials and processes for each project are selected to communicate visual, conceptual and emotional aspects of the subject. Ambiguity is at the core of his work, which is centered around objective yet intimate encounters with banality.

Exhibitions in the Capital District include the Spencertown Academy Arts Center, Lake George Arts Project and University Art Museum, State University of New York at Albany. Additional exhibits include The Chocolate Factory, Long Island City; Queens Museum of Art; Mikhail Zakin Gallery, Demarest N.J.; University of Massachusetts at Amherst; I Space, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Chicago; and the Rice Gallery, McDaniel College, Westminster, M.D. The artist resides in Delmar.

Thomas Lail has been making installation art for years and working with the medium of collage. The scaffold sculptures, often made with raw construction materials such as sheetrock, plastic sheeting and wood have served to inform his mostly monochromatic collages. Thom appropriates architecture or “found” spaces that are documented in photocopies and cut up into hundreds of strips. These dissected pictures are then recontextualized and reassembled into super sized maps or aerial images that he sees as analogous to his installation process. In his latest collages, he is exploring Buckminster Fuller’s theories regarding the geodesic dome.

Exhibitions include Galleria Jana Koniarka-Synagogue Center for Contemporary Art, Trnava, Slovakia; ArtCologne, Cologne, Germany; Economy Projects, London, UK; Lawndale Art Center, Houston, Texas; Space, Cleveland, Ohio; White Columns and Smack Mellon, New York City. Thom has performed and recorded both as a solo artist and with the experimental music trio Lukomski/Majer/Lail. He has published various reviews and essays including two catalogue essays on the work of artist, Robert Longo. Thom is associate professor of fine arts at Hudson Valley Community College and is a recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for excellence in teaching. He lives and works in Valatie and Brooklyn.

The subject matter of Patrick Neal’s paintings varies in style. But he continues to explore over-arching ideas in three main bodies of work: self-portraits, portraiture and still life. Modernism and its movements, Cubism and the work of Georges Braque have been important influences. The recent paintings are derived from ordinary studio collectibles such as vases, fruit, fabric and pictures. Rather than focus on the narrative possibilities of the painted objects, the artist chooses to emphasize the phenomenological, tactile and kinesthetic investigations that the objects evoke. “The process of interpreting a cluster of static flowerpots and vases is, despite how calm it may appear, a tumultuous act–a microcosm of all the chaos and simultaneity confronting us in real time in the world.”

Exhibitions in New York City include the Italian Academy at Columbia University; The Chocolate Factory; SIP, 998 Amsterdam Avenue; Ansonia Building Gallery at Shneyer & Shen; Karma Lounge; Rodney Telford, Downtown Arts Festival; White Columns; First Street Gallery; David Beitzel Gallery and the New York Studio School. Awards include semi-finalist, The Outwin Boocheer Portrait Competition 2006, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery; Ingram Merrill Foundation Award; Vogelstein Foundation, Inc. Grant; Elizabeth Canfield Hicks Award at Yale; Revson Scholarship, New York Studio School; Skowhegan School of Art Scholarship. The artist lives and works in New York City.

Sergio Sericolo ‘88MFA Painting, 2005University at Albany, State University of New York

What Can I Compare You To? 2007Untitled, 2008Untitled, 2008A Visit to the Armourer, 2009The Dead Lamb, Our Pets, 2009

Sergio Sericolo uses found imagery and accidents to influence his paintings and drawings. The invented landscape of his paintings begins with pools of color and solvent. Natural images resembling inorganic and anatomical elements are incorporated into fabricated landscapes in order to create strange, symbiotic relationships. No photographs or other images are used as references. Rather, the paintings are created through constantly reacting to what has already been painted. The drawings stem from printed reproductions in antique books. The prints are destroyed and rebuilt developing imagery in order to create new narratives. “Using these images as a starting point, I set out to depict nature as it might actually appear, to transform the ornamental impression of these book pages into one that is, though fantastic, essentially more real.”

Exhibitions in the Capital District include Albany Center Galleries, Saratoga Arts Center, Albany Institute of History and Art, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and John Davis Gallery. In 2006, Sergio was awarded the New York Foundation for the Arts individual artists fellowship in painting. He work is held in the New York State Comptroller Building Collection and the Pierogi 2000 flat-file collection in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The artist serves as art director and adjunct faculty at Siena College and resides in Loudonville.

Aimee Tarasek ‘04MFA Sculpture, 2007Alfred University

Floor Sculptures:Home from Afar, 2009A Version of Home, 2009

Aimee Tarasek creates objects that are renditions of thoughts and life experiences stemming from self-investigation. She often associates ideas and memories with her upbringing on a farm in Upstate New York. The sculptures evolve through a repetitive process where systems of three-dimensional drawing and layering are devised sparingly and methodically in order to uncover deeper meaning. Every step is carefully weighed and considered. Decisions are formed which allow the physical object to reflect her careful, cognitive course.

Exhibitions include the Gannet Gallery, State University of New York IT, Utica; Utica College; Florence Lynch Gallery, New York City; Albany International Airport Gallery; Lake George Arts Project, Courthouse Gallery; Hartwick College and several Mohawk Hudson Regionals. Aimee was awarded a funded residency at Sculpture Space. She received a Strategic Opportunity Stipend from the New York Foundation for the Arts, jurors’ awards from the Southern Tier Biennial and Cooperstown Art Association as well as a purchase prize from the Albany Institute of History and Art. The artist serves as adjunct faculty in 3-D Foundations at Syracuse University. She resides in Marcy where she just built a new studio.

Marie Triller ‘78MFA Photography, 1983University at New Paltz, State University of New York

Each year, thousands of mourners gather at Ground Zero on September 11, crowding around the fences and barricades for solemn hours of remembrance. Families and friends. Tourists. Police and firefighters. Artists and performers. Wall Street workers. Flag-wavers. Bush-haters.

For me, they represent millions more who share their grief. My annual pilgrimage to photograph at the World Trade Center site is my way of creating a collective portrait of all those who mourn the victims of 9.11.

Two weeks after the terrorist attacks of 9.11.01, I felt compelled to go there and photograph. I returned many times in the following months and attended the first memorial on 9.11.02. It was a sorrowful and moving experience. At that time, I had no idea that a personal project was evolving, one that would continue for years to come. I have documented every 9.11 to date.

Solo projects and exhibitions include Sin Lugar (Without a Place), The People’s gallery, City Hall, El Paso, Texas; Remembrance: A 9.11 Memorial Exhibition, held at several venues including the University of California at San Diego, University of Wyoming at Laramie, and University of Nebraska, Kearney. Additional exhibitions were held in Belize at The Image Factory, Belize City and Gulisi Garifuna Museum, Dangriga, Belize. The artist has served on the art faculty at Voorheesville High School for many years. She resides in Albany.

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